[IamNikhil]

Originally Posted by JB_BLR

I went to a Skoda dealer yesterday and had a long talk on the EPC issue. One thing they were stressing upon again and again was this is caused due to adulterated fuel. He told me if you use Shell petrol there is no chance of this issue coming up (alternatively he said if you can't find a Shell petrol pump then use the premium fuels of BP/HP).

The dealer seems to be a total joker. Did Skoda test the Kushaq for lakhs of kilometres running solely on Shell fuel? Did Skoda think that their customers are all millionaires to be able to afford only "premium fuel" all the time? It's an unmitigated disaster if the car cannot run on the regular unleaded fuel available at all pumps across the country, of whichever company, be it HP, BP, Indian Oil or Shell. Please write to Zac Hollis naming this dealer and let's see what he responds. Please don't be fooled by such dealer nonsense.

Originally Posted by prateekvinayak

Now that the company has encountered this issue, I hope they are taking enough steps to avoid this in the cars that will be delivered further, otherwise, and to put in that mechanic's words "Ye gaadi bahut badnaami kardegi"

Yeh gaadi already bahut badnaami kar chuki hai!

Originally Posted by Rahul9229

I know Skoda will eventually fix this problem but if they take too long, customer faith will never return again.

It's inexcusable for so many cars to be showing up with niggles in the first place. VAG cars are generally held to a higher standard (personally fail to see why!). People cry hoarse about a million things every time there is an issue with a Tata or Mahindra, but routinely give the benefit of doubt to Skoda and Volkswagen. That's unjust!

Originally Posted by Mile_muncher

Looks like even the OEM is clueless about the issue or may be not sure how to resolve such issues. Feeling sad for all the owners who are suffering.

This serves to buttress the fact that Skoda has gone into this 2.0 campaign without enough R&D, just to capitalize on the buyer sentiment and sell volumes. As I had mentioned earlier on in the thread, this whole localisation campaign etc is just a marketing gimmick to hide the fact that they've undertaken massive cost-cutting and haven't maintained the highest production standards. All this talk of Zac coming in with a magic wand is just empty air. No amount of social media goodwill can hide the poor quality of a product as experienced by customers first hand!

[Mile_muncher]

Hey Nikhil

Thanks for your post (I don't know how to multi-quote)
But I sincerely hope that you are wrong here and that it's just one (of course a BIG one) issue that has come up in an otherwise great product. While it's so painful to see/read about these breakdowns but would still love to remain hopeful and optimistic about Skoda's commitment for India

[adventureseeker]

Originally Posted by Rahul9229

New fuel pump and sensor lasted less than 50 KMs.

This indicates that the issue might be something else and not the faulty fuel pumps or sensors which is the normal recourse that is being taken by Skoda in the EPC cases of other cars as well. I hope Skoda resolves the issue with your car .

[nimblemaster]

Originally Posted by JishD

Karma strikes back - better check if your S cross is part of the recall

P.S. I've had flawless experiences with both Maruti and Volkswagen over 7-8 year ownership periods. Now at 700 km with the Kushaq with fingers crossed all the way.

I've recently started facing two weird issues with my Kushaq:
1. The driver side window auto up down switch sometimes works and sometimes behaves like a non auto up down switch, it doesn't open the window in one click,
2. The ORVMs close and open automatically while driving. This seems to happen without any correlation with the speed, time etc.
Any clues/ fixes on this?

[VEA]

Originally Posted by Rahul9229

Update:

My car came back yesterday and fuel pump and a sensor was changed. Today I again faced the starting problem in the morning. I was on call was the ASS that the car is still facing starting problems which they literally couldn't believe. 20 mins into the my first drive today, the car has come to a halt in the middle of a busy traffic signal. I am stranded now with EPC issue waiting for skoda RSA for 1 hr now, and hopefully they will pick up my car in another hour. New fuel pump and sensor lasted less than 50 KMs. It's really heartbreaking and scary situation, I got this car mainly for long highway runs and now it's scary planning a road trip on this car for atleast the next 6 months till issues are finally resolved. I know skoda will eventually fix this problem but if the take too long, customer faith will never return again.

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. Just out of curiosity, did the EPC warning come up immediately after a refuel? While replacing the fuel pump and sensor, did the ASS empty the fuel tank and fill it with fresh fuel?

[JishD]

Originally Posted by nimblemaster

I've recently started facing two weird issues with my Kushaq:
1. The driver side window auto up down switch sometimes works and sometimes behaves like a non auto up down switch, it doesn't open the window in one click,
2. The ORVMs close and open automatically while driving. This seems to happen without any correlation with the speed, time etc.
Any clues/ fixes on this?

1. For auto up down , you need to hold it down for a little longer. It's a 2 step mechanism, like a long click on your phone.
2. For ORVM , close it once by turning the knob anticlockwise . Then open it up again. Can't say for sure that it will solve the problem, but worth a try.

[eccentric]

Times have changed, too much electronic interventions have taken over, mechanical simplicity is lost, robustness of a component has perished! OEMs have moved towards greedy profits compromising quality thereby leaving the customers in peril.

What was the Quality Assurance department of Skoda India plant doing? I strongly suspect if they even TD the vehicles before dispatch or just TD with the instrument cluster disconnected that this error never occurred there?

Dear Skoda, could you please close your in-house Quality department? Because you have your customers don the role of Quality Inspectors that they get to run their brand-new vehicles as test mules, face breakdowns, report errors, fix it and then repeat the same.

Those who are about to buy a Kushaq, invest only when you have another car which could reliably perform and don't ever think of selling your old car to buy this quarter baked product.

Had done some digging. EPC error might also arise due to a failing turbo! Strange, right? But the events unfolding right now have an eerie resemblance that dates back to 2011 as seen in the screenshots attached below,




Source: Briskoda.net - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/205445-epc-light/

Kushaq owners, have any of your cars faced the same symptoms?

[Rahul9229]

Originally Posted by VEA

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. Just out of curiosity, did the EPC warning come up immediately after a refuel? While replacing the fuel pump and sensor, did the ASS empty the fuel tank and fill it with fresh fuel?

It happened just after refuel and they didn't clean the fuel tank or replace any fuel .

Originally Posted by nimblemaster

I've recently started facing two weird issues with my Kushaq:
1. The driver side window auto up down switch sometimes works and sometimes behaves like a non auto up down switch, it doesn't open the window in one click,
2. The ORVMs close and open automatically while driving. This seems to happen without any correlation with the speed, time etc.
Any clues/ fixes on this?

I had a similar issue with power windows. They found the motor defective and changed it . You can complain to your service centre for both the issues.

[VEA]

Originally Posted by Rahul9229

It happened just after refuel and they didn't clean the fuel tank or replace any fuel .

Do they suspect water contamination in the fuel? It could be possible since some of the reported EPC issues have been caused immediately after refueling. I used to run a petrol pump and have seen many cases of fuel pump failure due to water ingress. Most of these happen when its raining and the car is wet coming into the pump. It causes water dripping into the fuel inlet even if refueling happens under a covered canopy. European cars are notoriously sensitive to these drops of water in our experience. Some cars have the fuel inlet in a better designed recess so that water will not drip inside, but not sure about the Kushaq.

Originally Posted by Rahul9229

I had a similar issue with power windows. They found the motor defective and changed it . You can complain to your service centre for both the issues.

This issue has been reported by multiple users. Also couple of people have reported that the ORVMs close and open on its own during driving.

[lsjey]

After going through the posts of people who are facing agonizing EPC problems, I've the following questions.

1. Shouldn't Škoda issue a recall of vehicles?
2. Is there no way for the Ministry of Road transport to intervene? Hasn't this problem reached critical mass for these interventions to happen?

Regards,
lsjey

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by lsjey

2. Is there no way for the Ministry of Road transport to intervene? Hasn't this problem reached critical mass for these interventions to happen?

Before getting into recalls and ministry intervention - first mainstream media should cover this issue.

I think more than 25 brand news cars have reported breakdowns - and many of them reported in twitter have tagged media channels for attention - but there is almost no coverage of this issue anywhere.

The rare article that came in some website was about the nice reassurances given by Zac to customers facing issues.

[IamNikhil]

Originally Posted by nimblemaster

The ORVMs close and open automatically while driving. This seems to happen without any correlation with the speed, time etc.

This can prove to be extremely dangerous while driving. Seems to be an issue with the motor, you should get this rectified from the service centre immediately.

Originally Posted by eccentric

Times have changed, too much electronic interventions have taken over, mechanical simplicity is lost, robustness of a component has perished! OEMs have moved towards greedy profits compromising quality thereby leaving the customers in peril.

Dear Skoda, could you please close your in-house Quality department?

Skoda has just rushed this Kushaq into the market. Absolutely appalling!

Originally Posted by lsjey

1. Shouldn't Škoda issue a recall of vehicles?
2. Is there no way for the Ministry of Road transport to intervene? Hasn't this problem reached critical mass for these interventions to happen?

If our government was as strict with oversight as other Western nations, automakers wouldn't have the gall to take customers for a ride in this fashion! The same automakers who bend over backwards to accommodate and toe the government line in Western countries, are at ease in India because the know we are too easy-going and they can pass-off any trash to us without much thought.

Just a few BHPians outraging will not help, the major media outlets need to take cognizance of this matter, only then will Skoda actually acknowledge these issues and take corrective measures.

Would only hope that in view of the rising number of issues being reported in the Kushaq, people wait it out and not book the car right now.

[ajmat]

One question

Is the new E10 fuel to blame?

On the other hand, I used to have this recurring EPC issue in my old mk1 VRS. Error codes pointed to throttle body which was causing engine to run very rich triggers the EPC. Bottom line, it was a defective coolant sensor which sent signals that the engine was cold hence making the fuel stream rich. 30 pounds and 10 min of work, Engine ran so sweetly. I discovered this solution just before I sold the car.

My guess is that Skoda is struggling with a batch of defective sensors and may not know which one exactly!

[arnab_bsp]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Before getting into recalls and ministry intervention - first mainstream media should cover this issue.

I think more than 25 brand news cars have reported breakdowns - and many of them reported in twitter have tagged media channels for attention - but there is almost no coverage of this issue anywhere.

The rare article that came in some website was about the nice reassurances given by Zac to customers facing issues.

The coverage by mainstream media is not going to happen so easily...Skoda is running full front page ads every few days. Nobody wants to loose that money.

[prajwalmr62]

Please don't shout at me, but isn't this the same 1l TSI engine offered in all of their other cars? Why would this issue come up with an old engine? Do we have any Polo/Vento stranded on roads?

Any idea on level of localization done on engine? If you can plonk that engine in Polo straight from Germany, why not do the same for Kushaq as well? If you have to cheapen out on sensors, it makes sense to test it in that 15 lakh km road test, and fix all the issues.

People blaming on fuel/E10 - If Kushaq is not getting good quality fuel, so is Polo. Why is it not stranded on road?